Why Are We Doing This?

As a teacher, one of the most common questions I hear is, "Why are we doing this?" It's a question that's tempting for a busy teacher to brush off. But it's a question I try to take the time to answer, mostly because I remember how much I wanted it answered as a kid. I do my best to explain why I've planned a particular activity or assignment. I find that these kinds of explanations help students feel less like pawns in a game.
 
As important as it is to explain what the rules of the game are, teachers and students also benefit when students are brought into the discussion of what the rules of the game should be. In my middle school classes, I use Google forms to ask students for feedback on pedagogical approaches I've used, and I sometimes alter plans for future lessons based on their feedback.
 
For my high school students, I take it a step further by letting them make the pedagogical choices. As part of their final, each student is in charge of preparing a lesson for the class. This assignment has sparked conversations about what useful and engaging teaching looks like. For example, initially many students veer toward lessons that would be easy to execute, like showing a video. But when asked if watching a video is the best way to engage the rest of the class and help us learn the material, they concede it probably isn't.

Why do you think many teachers are hesitant to make pedagogy more collaborative and transparent to students? What ways might you employ a more transparent and collaborative pedagogy or administrative style? 

Meredith Stewart teaches 6th grade language arts and 6th and 12th grade history at Cary Academy, Cary, N.C., and is a 2011 Annual Conference Scholar. She blogs at http://meredithstewart.com.

Too Dumb for Complex Texts?

Every year, millions of high school graduates head off to college, but many (about a third or more) will hit a detour before their first day: they're not ready for college-level work and need to take remedial classes.

What separates the college-ready from the college-unready?

ACT data points to the inability to comprehend complex texts as the primary cause for unreadiness. Exposure and practice with complex texts would help close the college readiness gap, but in "Too Dumb for Complex Texts?," author Mark Bauerlein warns that the surfeit of digital texts in high school curricula does little to address this need.

Skimming, diversions, immediate feedback, personal opinions, and frequent interruptions characterize digital texts, says Bauerlein. "[S]urrounded by the tools of acceleration," it becomes nearly impossible for students to decelerate their reading to absorb complex texts, he adds.

Complex texts demand readers who are

• willing to pause and probe
• capable of uninterrupted thinking
• open to deep thinking

Complex texts are humbling and require single-tasking, an increasingly foreign experience for screenagers. But, Bauerlein argues, students benefit more and are better prepared for college when schools introduce these sorts of unwired learning experiences into the curriculum.

Do you agree that digital texts detract from deep-reading habits? How is "acoustic" learning encouraged or discouraged in your school?

In Case You Missed It

Here's what has been going on at ASCD this week:

• The latest issue of Educational Leadership has been posted. Read about practices educators are using when "teaching screenagers" in the modern classroom.
• The latest Talks with an Author interview is available now. Hear what Education Week founder Ron Wolk says about saving failing education systems.
• Sean Slade, ASCD's Healthy School Communities director, recently wrote about health disparities among U.S. students and what school systems should be doing to address this crisis. Read his Washington Post article.
• Jason Flom discusses his experience at this year's Leadership Initiative for Legislative Advocacy (LILA) and concludes that making significant reforms to education policies is an ongoing and difficult process, but also one he's going to keep fighting for.
• Mike Fisher watched the State of the Union speech and took a unique approach to dissecting President Obama's words.

Add your own highlights in the comments, and check this spot for our regular weekly digest of ASCD activities.

Should We Allow Students to Use Cell Phones in School?

At our high school, we recently reexamined our electronic use policy. In conversations during the summer, the assistant principals and I agreed that enforcing our current policy of no electronic devices during the school day was inconsistent with societal norms.

So in the opening days of this school year, we asked our students to use their cell phones and other devices responsibly. As we examine this shift in practice, we continue to ask questions. What is the best policy regarding cell phone access? How do parents feel about this issue? What are the instructional benefits?
  
—Kate Long, Principal, Twin Valley High School, Elverson, Penn. 

 

"Decriminalize" Cell Phones

In our school, we used to confiscate cell phones that students used and hold them for parent pickup. We soon realized that a student might need that phone for an emergency or to communicate with a parent. The punishment (and potential consequences) didn't seem to fit the crime.

We decided this was not a battle to fight, and we decriminalized cell phones. Now, if a phone causes a disruption, we treat it as we would any other disruption. After all, to our students (and let's face it, to us as well) the cell phone has become a virtual appendage—an essential communication tool and not necessarily more disruptive than a student tapping a pencil on a desk.

Since we rethought our policy, havoc has not reigned. Our school structure has not collapsed, and the instructional process has not suffered. We now have more time to focus on what matters: teaching and learning.

—Scott Herrmann, Principal, Gemini Junior High School, Niles, Ill.

 

Teach Cell Phone Etiquette

This past summer, we too began to question our cell phone policy. It occurred to us that everywhere else in society, we have been taught when cell phone use is appropriate. For example, church services or movie showings often start with a reminder to silence all cell phones. We realized that our students also need to be taught appropriate use.

Now use in the classroom is still off limits, but in the cafeteria or hallways, use is allowed. When students enter a classroom, they are greeted with a reminder about appropriate use. We have seen a drop in disruptions related to electronic devices, and parents have welcomed this more relaxed policy.
 
—Dave Stovenour, Assistant Principal, Dundalk High School, Baltimore County Public Schools, Md.

 

Emphasize Responsible Use

At my school, we permit students to possess cell phones in school, but we require them to keep their phones "out of sight, out of mind" during school hours. We do allow them to use other forms of technology, such as iPods or other listening devices, outside the classroom. Students understand and respect the policy.

We are doing a great deal of inservice training with our teachers (and parents) on 21st century learners, including how to use student-owned technology in the classroom as an instructional tool. In this way, we are able to emphasize the responsible use of technology by our students. The instructional benefits are significant, and we really don't have a choice but to move in this direction, knowing that students are able to access information instantly in a wireless environment.

—Andre Potvin, Principal, Lester B. Pearson Catholic High School, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

 

Each month in Educational Leadership's "Among Colleagues" column, practicing educators will draw from their own experience to share advice about challenges their colleagues face. This month's participants are some of the 2010 ASCD Annual Conference Scholars and Emerging Leaders.

The Highly Connected Teacher

"[W]e need to get beyond calling teachers digital immigrants, as if technology holds a certain code only young people can decipher."

In this month's Educational Leadership, Karen Cator, director of the U.S. Office of Educational Technology discusses the report Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology and a national technology vision for schools.

Cator's plan envisions successful teachers as "highly connected"—to content, data, resources, and people who can push both their own and their students' learning.

The term "highly connected teachers" might be said to describe those in Mooresville Graded School District in North Carolina, where Cator noted on visiting that she often couldn't tell where the front of the classroom was. "The whole space was a learning environment . . . technology was just part of the infrastructure." She adds that technology-rich pedagogy is engaging, well-designed, and personalized for the learner.

Read the full interview, "Transforming Education with Technology: A Conversation with Karen Cator," in the February 2011 issue of Educational Leadership.

Is technology opening doors among educators to improve practice? Is the stereotype of teachers working in isolation no longer relevant?

Elbows, Knees, Dreams

"There's a lot of drama in preschool," notes Kiri, the anonymous blogger behind Elbows, Knees, Dreams. Here, this prekindergarten teacher documents all the excitement of her day-to-day classroom experiences, meditates on effective practice, and poses questions to her many commenters. As with any good storyteller, Kiri has a rich cast of characters and regularly grapples with the realities of being a teacher.

Posts like "Pumpkin's Communication Issues" (Kiri regularly renames her students after fruits and vegetables to maintain anonymity) explore a child's perplexing and frustrating learning issues. In another post, "In Praise of Picture Books," she deals with the trend of pushing children to read chapter books at younger and younger ages. Throughout, Kiri maintains a light and breezy tone, making Elbows, Knees, Dreams an easy and engaging read.

Schools, Families, Communities

What supports can schools provide to help maintain a healthy, safe environment for learning? How can schools encourage parents—including parents from minority and immigrant cultures—to take on meaningful roles in the school? How can we best guide parents to reinforce students' schoolwork at home? And how can schools make better use of the rich resources within their communities?

ASCD Express is looking for short, 600 to 1,000-word essays on the theme "Schools, Families, Communities." Guidelines for submissions are here. Please send us your submissions by February 8, 2011.

We welcome articles on innovations like full-service community schools; 24-hour schools; service learning; community-based projects; and partnerships among schools, local businesses, and universities.

Chip Heath: Mrs. Deats' Science Lesson Was Made to Stick

What makes certain ideas "sticky"? 

The Heath brothers, Chip a psychologist and Dan an education consultant, say an idea is likely to stay with you when it's presented as a Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional Story.

Chip will draw from Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die and Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard for his keynote at ASCD's 2011 Annual Conference.

We asked Chip Heath, What's a school lesson that's stuck with you into adulthood? Heath told us:

In Mrs. Deats' third grade class we did some science lessons about gases. That's a pretty abstract concept since you can't see a gas. But she did the exercise in class where you put a candle in a bowl of water and then invert a jar over the candle. As the candle consumes oxygen it eventually goes out, and then the water rushes in to the jar to fill the space formerly occupied by the oxygen.

It was like science magic: all of a sudden you could see two visual implications of something you can't see: the candle goes out when oxygen is gone and the water tells you how much space the oxygen used to occupy. I remember going home and convincing my mom to let me do it at home.

That's the kind of lesson impact we will be talking about at ASCD: how do you make kids excited enough about something that they want to think about it later on at home. (And by the way, I recently did Mrs. Deats' demonstration for my seven-year-old daughter. That's not bad for a third-grade science lesson, to be remembered 40 years later.)

Impressions of Finnish Schools – A Week to Learn

Taking a snapshot approach to the Finnish school system, which was only possible during our one-week visit, leaves out a lot of the landscape—but you still come away with a feeling that teachers and children are cherished, respected, and nurtured. With a population of only 5.5 million, the Finns understand that the future of the country depends on an educated populace that can take its place in a global economy.

Due to the high status of teaching and the competition for entry to the university, Finnish teachers appear to have confidence in their teaching ability and an ease in the classroom. Principals consistently spoke about the trust they have in their faculties to make the proper decisions for the students. This relationship of trust percolates to the students, who trust their teachers to provide the best learning situation possible.

The Finnish Ministry of Education provides very broad standards for teachers to follow—none of the trivial pursuit topics that some of our states demand. Teachers are free to teach the standards in the way they wish. In terms of ongoing professional learning, one of the schools we visited devoted three hours a week to professional learning—one hour with the principal and two hours collaborating with colleagues. Teachers set the agenda, bringing professional learning topics to the principal for discussion.

The concept of principal is quite different from the United States. Principals are chosen from the teaching ranks and that is it. No special certification is needed. At one small magnet school, the principal chose to teach two classes, so that she would not forget what it is like in the classroom. How refreshing! 

My overall impression of the Finnish education system was one of trust and mutual respect. The expectation that teachers, principals, and students will do the "right thing" was echoed in every school visit. 

Post submitted by Christina Gutierrez, coordinator of the Professional Learning Center at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va.

Look to Your Superstitions (1944)

Have you ever gotten excited over finding a four-leaf clover or done a little nail-biting after accidentally breaking a mirror? We might easily dismiss such reactions as the product of silly superstitions, but consider how your beliefs about things like politics or even education would hold up under the light of scrutiny. Are these notions about the world more grounded in fact and rational discourse than your superstitions?

In the April 1944 issue of Educational Leadership, college professor John Holden explores superstitions and other unfounded modes of thought and offers some criteria for determining the validity of our beliefs.

Read the article: Look to Your Superstitions (PDF)

Urging educators to think critically about their beliefs and practices, Holden notes that "these are no times for anyone, least of all educators, to be swayed by beliefs which seem to have come from nowhere and which gain acceptance chiefly by their plausibility."

In "My Back Pages," we look at important issues through the historical lens of the Educational Leadership archives. ASCD members can access EL issues from 1943 to the present by signing in at the right.

Washington Calls on Educators to Lift the Economy, Shape Policy

"Out-innovate, out-educate, out-build"—that's what it's going to take to "win the future," President Obama declared in tonight's State of the Union address. Obama discussed education largely in terms of the economy, especially job creation, and U.S. competitiveness internationally:

"If we want innovation to produce jobs in America and not overseas, then we also have to win the race to educate our kids."

In terms of policy, Obama touched on making college affordable, investing in community colleges, rewarding good teachers, "not making excuses" for bad ones, supporting the DREAM Act (without actually calling it by name), and this:

"Race to the Top should be the approach we follow this year as we replace No Child Left Behind with a law that is more flexible and focused on what's best for our kids."

(Read ASCD's response to the State of the Union, and why ESEA reauthorization this year is so critical.)

Bruce Randolph School in Denver, Colo., got a shout-out for turning around very low achievement in three years. Denver's not a surprising choice; the city's ProComp plan is a leading example of union and district collaboration to improve teacher compensation and effectiveness. Obama said:

"We know what's possible for our children when reform isn't just a top-down mandate, but the work of local teachers and principals, school boards, and communities."

Educators visiting their representatives on the Hill this week as part of ASCD's Leadership Institute for Legislative Advocacy got something of a preview of the State of the Union when they heard from Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) this afternoon.

Sen. Reed is lead sponsor of the principal and teacher improvement act (Preparing, Recruiting, and Retaining Education Professionals Act), which ASCD helped craft and wholeheartedly endorses. "Effective teachers and effective school leadership are our most significant point of leverage for improving schools," Reed affirmed.

Can Education Be Bipartisan?

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization has languished in policy purgatory since 2007, with analysts predicting that if it doesn't happen by this summer, it'll be lost in the run up to the 2012 elections.

Talking with attendees at ASCD's Leadership Institute for Legislative Advocacy today, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was hopeful that ESEA would be marked up this year. The Obama blueprint for reauthorizing ESEA includes calls for well-rounded education, making Race to the Top and Investing in Innovation permanent programs, and college- and career-ready standards and assessments.

"When I travel around the country, the biggest complaint I hear is that we're narrowing the curriculum," Duncan remarked. He added that ESEA is far too punitive. "The only reward for success is you're not a failure. We need to focus on growth and look at graduation rates."

From the 30,000 foot level, both sides of the aisle seem to agree with the major points of the Obama blueprint, Politics K-12 blogger and Ed. Week journalist Alyson Klein said in her presentation, later in the day.

Klein examined what's working in favor of bipartisanship: the Obama blueprint scales back the federal role in education, expands charters, pushes states to link teacher effectiveness to student outcomes, consolidates funding, and supports growth models.

. . . And what's working against bipartisanship: changes in leadership, particularly tea party members wanting to eliminate the federal role in education.  

Klein also shared some of the people and trends on her watch list for ed. policy this year:

• House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH): He was a big player working with both sides of Congress in the 2001 ESEA reauthorization.
• Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN): He was secretary of education under President Bush Sr., and shares a lot of Duncan's views on issues. Will he be willing to sell reauthorization to Republicans?
• Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA): Look for him to champion whole child, small classes, and working with unions. 
• The tea party: Many ran on getting rid of the Department of Education, but that's the extent of their education agenda. How will their lack of experience, and maybe even interest, inform ESEA reauthorization?
• The ghost of Rep. George Miller's (D-CA) draft 2007 reauthorization: Its achilles heel was tying evaluations to student test scores, but elements of this draft may rise again.
• The budget: frozen at FY10 levels, the freeze--or worse, cuts--could continue.
• The future of Race to the Top and Investing in Innovation: They were funded under the stimulus, and were used as levers to influence policy, but have no new money to continue. What happens when the big pot of money funding Duncan's carrots goes away?

Many believe education is the one issue on which bipartisanship can happen. Is it happening at the local level in your state or district? What's supporting or derailing consensus?

How Can We Improve Teacher Education?

Teacher education is vital; it's where teachers start. Yet too often, teacher education is disrespected.

It's seen as lacking relevance in the  "real world" of schools, even though many of those teaching in initial teacher education programs are borrowed or contracted from K-12 schools. 

Or consider that education professors are encouraged to publish cutting edge research, but often this research is disregarded by busy educators, or used to confirm existing beliefs.

How do we encourage these groups of teachers and teacher educators to bridge these solitudes of our profession? How do we better demonstrate the connections, but also the limitations, of using research to improve classroom practice? What are the hallmarks of a quality teacher education program?

Post submitted by John Myers, a curriculum instructor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto and a 2011 ASCD Annual Conference Scholar.

Can Distinguished Title 1 Schools Prosper After Budget Cuts?

Manzanita SEED Elementary School, a small, inclusive, Spanish-English immersion elementary school in Oakland, is one of two schools in California to win the 2010 National Title I Distinguished School Award for closing the achievement gap between student subgroups.

Katy Murphy reports for the Oakland Tribune, "About 85 percent of the school's students come from low-income families and half enter kindergarten as English learners."

Principal Katherine Carter attributes the school's progress, since opening in 2005, to stable staffing that collaborates closely, including writing their own curriculum.

But Manzanita, like other schools in Oakland, faces a potential 15 percent budget cut that threatens funding for teachers, a low-cost counseling program, time for teachers to work together, and supports for struggling students.

Manzanita shows that, with the right resources, schools can and are closing achievement gaps. The question is whether they'll still be able to do this with less and less.

Educators Hit the Hill to Close Gaps and Rewrite ESEA

ASCD educators are in Washington this week, seizing the opportunity to shape education for the next decade, if not longer. Along with specific objectives in their own states, these educators will bring tenets of the just-released 2011 ASCD Legislative Agenda to meetings with their state representatives. (Read the press release.)

The agenda includes emphasis on well-rounded, career- and college-ready students, whole child education, multiple measures (not just multiple tests) of student achievement, closing international and domestic achievement gaps, and a complete rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

The Legislative Agenda also notably calls for a major shift in approach to U.S. education policy. "Currently, schools that make AYP get a pat on the back, and those that don't get punished," said ASCD Policy Director David Griffith at last night's kickoff to ASCD's Leadership Institute for Legislative Advocacy.

"AYP is irretrievably broken. Our goal is moving education policy toward rewards and supports and away from punitive measures," he added.

It's a shift that mirrors recent calls to move away from political point-scoring and toward proactive solutions. Guest-speaker Washington Post journalist E.J. Dionne noted that we don't want to be where we are in political discourse, and envisioned an "attentive society" defined by widespread willingness to give and receive assistance on the road to truth.

"Society has a vested interest in education that goes beyond keeping property values high," he said. "If you care about the strength of the country and social justice, you have to care about education."

What message would you take to education policymakers in Washington?

See what educators at ASCD's Leadership Institute for Legislative Advocacy are talking about--follow them on Twitter at #LILA11.

In Case You Missed It

Here's are some weekly highlights from ASCD:

• Yong Zhao responds to the controversial "Tiger Mom" article that was published by the Wall Street Journal. Steven Wilmarth also gave his opinion on the article and asked several colleagues to chime in on the article's description of Chinese parenting.
• Walter McKenzie shares his thoughts on how teachers should look at setbacks as an opportunity to grow, learn, and become better teachers in the long run.
• Was Madeline Hunter Right or is her pedagogy a thing of the past? The newest issue of ASCD Express and Mike Schmoker's new book, Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning, examine these questions and more.
• A high school principal ponders the effects of state and federal education laws as he prepares to attend the Leadership Institute for Legislative Learning Conference in search for some answers.
• The most recent Whole Child newsletter focuses on the importance of schools promoting physical activity for students and why having a strong physical education program is essential.  
• Mike Fisher has some suggestions for fixing the snow day "elephant in the room" that seems to wreak havoc on school schedules.

Add your own highlights in the comments, and check this spot for our regular weekly digest of ASCD activities.

Opportunities and Expectations for Parents in Finland

On this study tour of Finland, as we visited all levels of schools and educational organizations, I am focusing on the role of parents and community in the education system.

The role of parents, according to students, is one of support and encouragement. There is a keen sense of independence and intrinsic motivation evident from students, which seems to start at home. There is also a framework of policies that engage and enlist parents as partners in education.

Structurally, each school has a school board, comprised of five elected parent representatives, at least one teacher, a staff member, the principal, and (in secondary schools) a student. Parents are involved with leadership of a school (overall mission, goals, budget) through the school board.

Because of a generous maternity leave policy (a parent can be absent from work for up to three years for the birth of a child and return to her job), mothers often stay home with children for at least a year and sometimes longer.

Schools in lower grades are typically neighborhood schools, so children walk with parents or by themselves in the morning. School bus transportation as we know it in the United States is not found here. Families are responsible for transporting students to school, so it is common to see children and parents walking to school and older students navigating public transportation. The level of children's early independence was surprising to many of us.

And as previously posted, parents pay, on a sliding scale, for nationally organized out-of-school programs.

Similar to the trust coupled with responsibility paradigm for Finland's teachers, parents in Finland understand that their partnership with schools includes both opportunities and expectations.

Post submitted by Valerie Truesdale, superintendent of Beaufort County School District in Beaufort, S.C., and ASCD Past-President.

Finland's Strategic Use of Out-of-School Time

When an instructional day is relatively short (about 5 hours per day), after-school activities are very important. In Finland, there is a specific national strategy to address out-of-school time.

For after-school care, there is a mosaic of services.The Finnish Sport Organization is a nongovernmental sport organization that supports the Finnish Olympic Committee, the Young Finland Association (for schools and day cares), and the Finnish Sport for Adults. The Young Finland Association, Nuori Suomi, began in 1987 to enhance sports club activities for children and youth. The association is funded by the government at about 5 million euros per year to promote these beliefs:

• All 7 to 18 year olds should be physically active 1-2 hours daily.
• Continued periods of sitting for over two hours at a time should be avoided.
• Screen time should be limited to two hours per day.

Considerable training and support are provided to schools and day cares for activities that encourage physical activity and sport.

Parents pay for after-school activities and clubs on a sliding scale, depending upon income. With dozens of member organizations, Nuori Suomi supports sport and physical activities in multiple venues such as schools, parks, and community sport centers.

So, how does this look to an individual child? At the end of the instructional day, we saw little children don their snow bibs and boots and head off to after-school programs with their cross-country skis over their shoulders!

Post submitted by Valerie Truesdale, superintendent of Beaufort County School District in Beaufort, S.C., and ASCD Past-President.

What's Wrong With Madeline Hunter? (1985)

The backlash against Madeline Hunter reached the pages of Educational Leadership in the form of"What's Wrong with Madeline Hunter?" a stinging rebuke penned by . . . Madeline Hunter. Of course this was no takedown, but a defense of her methods through a diligent debunking of what Hunter saw as myths about it.

Read the article: "What's Wrong With Madeline Hunter?" (PDF)

It's a measure of the impact of Hunter that she writes of herself in the third person: "Madeline Hunter" was both her name and a teaching method and philosophy whose ubiquity in the world of education inevitably drew a good deal of criticism. Perhaps the most fundamental criticism—or myth, according to Hunter—is that "the model is rigid and stifles creativity."

In fact, she insists the model is merely a solid foundation on which teachers can be creative and improvisational: "The Taj Mahal is not a violation of the principles of physics, engineering, and design, but a beautiful manifestation of an architect's inspired translation of these propositions into reality." In this metaphor, she calls to mind the more recent Educational Leadership article "Teaching as Jazz."

Hunter presents and shoots down a series of other myths, ranging from the applicability to veteran teachers to the model's use in subject areas such as art. Are criticisms the Hunter Model faced likely to befall any teaching model that becomes as prevalent as hers did? Or was the Hunter Model especially prone to such reduction and misapplication?

Teach42

As a long-time tech enthusiast, director of Discovery Education's social media strategy, and a regular in the educational technology speaking circuit, Steve Dembo has his finger on the pulse of what electronic resources educators are using.

In his blog Teach42, this former kindergarten teacher uses his experience and perspective to offer insightful analysis on everything from the viability of cell phones and tablets in the classroom to the use of YouTube in college applications. His posts—for example, the one on young children and social media—go beyond mere gadget geekery and explore both the social and education implications of new technologies.

What really makes Dembo's blog shine, however, is his open and inquisitive tone, which encourages interaction and conversation with readers. A great read for tech veterans and newbies alike, Teach42 is a fantastic place to explore issues vital to education in the 21st century.